The Heroic Trio (1993)

the following is a repost of my first review on Letterboxd nearly ten years ago:

This movie used to play all the time on cable in the late 90s, and I loved it as a 13 year old. A modern day kung-fu superhero flick, it features three kick-ass, beautiful women in the lead roles. There are differences between the character names in the dubbed and subtitle versions, so I will just refer to the actresses' names instead. Future international superstar Michelle Yeoh is working for the mysterious supernatural bad guy. She is using an invisibility cloak to steal newborn babies for his nefarious plan. Pop singer and actress Anita Mui plays a local superhero who is trying to stop her. Future arthouse cinema star Maggie Cheung rounds out the trio as a bounty hunter/mercenary who is hired by the police chief to find his missing baby. I love Cheung's proto-steampunk style outfit, and her character is great fun. The plot is a bit over-stuffed and can seem convoluted, but that's gonna happen when your movie has superheroes, bounty hunters, evil rituals, a tragic love story, multiple connected backstories, and a magical villainous eunuch. However, it is a very fast paced and frenetic movie, so it never feels dragged down by all the intertwined character histories and motivations, and the real point is the over-the-top fight scenes and melodramatic moments.

I feel like the only way to sum this delightful movie up is to borrow from the style of Joe Bob Briggs; This movie features kung-fu, gun-fu, wire-fu, barrel-fu, bike-fu, corpse-fu, swords, shurikens, shotguns, machine guns, a flying guillotine-type weapon, an invisible cloak, kid and kitten catching, horses outrunning a motorcycle, babies in peril, babes in cute outfits, and a climactic fight that feels like the bastard kung-fu baby of Terminator and Evil Dead.